Will One Man Decide The Future of US Health Care?

Many people in Washington believe that after all the appeals are exhausted, the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care law will be decided by the US Supreme Court. These same people speculate that four justices will vote with President Obama and four justices will vote against him. So the future rests, they say, with Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who would, in this scenario, cast the deciding vote.

Adam Liptak argues that a “partisan” vote by the Supreme Court would be a very bad thing for American jurisprudence. Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Tribe disagrees with the “one vote decides all” scenario and says that Supreme Court’s decision will be based on precedent, not politics.

The Supreme Court will likely hear the case next year, probably in the middle of the presidential general election campaign. So whatever the Court eventually decides will almost immediately become a big political issue.